So I'm off on me 'olidays tomorrow! I shall be leaving you all in the capable hands of the lovely Roz (although I have prepared another Splurge Vs Save for tomorrow! We don't leave until late on Friday so I'll be checking in to make sure you all have a guess! ;) Edit: I have now prepared posts for the whole week since I was on a roll at the weekend but Roz might change things around a bit if she has time.)
We're off to Seoul for a week (I know it's a long, long way for just a week) but that's what comes from being married to a junior doctor and we are going to enjoy the travel part as well since we used all our air-miles to book business class again like for our honeymoon in 2011! Yay, free champers in the lounge, here we come!
We will be staying in Hotel Tria in Gangnam (no, I will not be doing the dance!) as my fabulous deal hunting hubby found us a suite with 70% off which was cheaper than all the standard hotel rooms I was finding!! I really don't know why I bother with holiday research, he always finds the best deals somehow!
The hotel looks fab and seems to be in a good location but it's always hard to know for sure until you've visited a place or know someone who has. If you know the area at all please do leave us some tips :)
To prepare for our holiday and try to get excited about it (we've both been so busy lately we haven't even had time to think about it which is very weird for me as a planner, I'm usually packed at least a week in advance!) we went out for dinner at Glasgow's only Korean restaurant, Shilla, last weekend.
I read a few reviews before we went and was really excited to try a few things mentioned, including the Korean OB beer! We were both also very keen to try Kimchi as we heard it comes with everything over there, they love it.
When we first arrived we were greeted with a delicious smell, always a good start! The sever who greeted us was friendly and also turned out to have a few tips about Korean restaurants when we were discussing the menu with him later.
Unfortunately the table we were given faced the window with the menus in it so people walking past would be staring right in at us which was a bit annoying but the worst thing was that it was freezing as it was draughty right next to the door. It's a small restaurant and was quite busy so the only alternative we could see was the smaller table next to the bar and them men's restroom. We decided just to stay put. I knew once the food came I would warm up a bit so just used my scarf as a shawl in the meantime.
The next disappointment was when we tried to order, there were no OB beers which was a shame as a few reviews mentioned how nice they were, we'll just have to try them once we get there! There was another Korean beer on offer so we each had a Hite which we both enjoyed. Then I tried to order some sushi as a starter as although it's not Korean I just LOVE sushi and it was well priced compared to my usual Yo! Sushi favourites! No sushi available. We then heard another table ask for some as well, they really could just say when they bring the menu.
We soon warmed up with all the spicy food! Our starters were also delicious, the sauce with the dumplings was soy based with chilli and some other flavour right at the start that I recognised but couldn't quite put my finger on but we loved it! The dumplings were nice and crispy with a flavoursome filling.
The skewers were amazing! I didn't eat the pieces of chilli but Nik said they weren't too hot. Again the flavours were different to anything I've tried before but were a little similar to teryaki with a slightly sweet but overall savoury flavour.
The mains were served very quickly. In fact they came to ask if they could take our starter plates away while we were still tasting the soy sauce trying to think what the flavour could be, so they could put down our next plates!
We really enjoyed our meal and now can't wait to try real Korean food!
When we left, right next door there was a sushi place, Cailin's Sushi, so we picked up some pick 'n' mix sushi for lunch the next day since I didn't get to have any in the restaurant :) (Sadly it wasn't as exciting as I hoped as it was more like the sushi you get in supermarkets when the rice is kind of hard and dry.)
We then wandered down to The Finnieston for a cocktail before heading home. I had a Duoro Flip which included a whole egg but I didn't let that put me off and it was a very nice dessert cocktail, made of port, cherry liqueur, egg, cream and Grenadine. Nik had a Rob Buck Roy which is a long version of a whisky sour.
We had a lovely evening!
We're off to Seoul for a week (I know it's a long, long way for just a week) but that's what comes from being married to a junior doctor and we are going to enjoy the travel part as well since we used all our air-miles to book business class again like for our honeymoon in 2011! Yay, free champers in the lounge, here we come!
We will be staying in Hotel Tria in Gangnam (no, I will not be doing the dance!) as my fabulous deal hunting hubby found us a suite with 70% off which was cheaper than all the standard hotel rooms I was finding!! I really don't know why I bother with holiday research, he always finds the best deals somehow!
The hotel looks fab and seems to be in a good location but it's always hard to know for sure until you've visited a place or know someone who has. If you know the area at all please do leave us some tips :)
To prepare for our holiday and try to get excited about it (we've both been so busy lately we haven't even had time to think about it which is very weird for me as a planner, I'm usually packed at least a week in advance!) we went out for dinner at Glasgow's only Korean restaurant, Shilla, last weekend.
I read a few reviews before we went and was really excited to try a few things mentioned, including the Korean OB beer! We were both also very keen to try Kimchi as we heard it comes with everything over there, they love it.
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| Image Source |
When we first arrived we were greeted with a delicious smell, always a good start! The sever who greeted us was friendly and also turned out to have a few tips about Korean restaurants when we were discussing the menu with him later.
Unfortunately the table we were given faced the window with the menus in it so people walking past would be staring right in at us which was a bit annoying but the worst thing was that it was freezing as it was draughty right next to the door. It's a small restaurant and was quite busy so the only alternative we could see was the smaller table next to the bar and them men's restroom. We decided just to stay put. I knew once the food came I would warm up a bit so just used my scarf as a shawl in the meantime.
The next disappointment was when we tried to order, there were no OB beers which was a shame as a few reviews mentioned how nice they were, we'll just have to try them once we get there! There was another Korean beer on offer so we each had a Hite which we both enjoyed. Then I tried to order some sushi as a starter as although it's not Korean I just LOVE sushi and it was well priced compared to my usual Yo! Sushi favourites! No sushi available. We then heard another table ask for some as well, they really could just say when they bring the menu.
Anyway, from there on it was all good. We ordered the dak go chi (chicken skewers with chilli, garlic and spring onion) and gun man do (home-made fried dumplings filled with minced pork, tofu, spring onion and rice noodle), £5 each. For our mains we had Sizzling oh sam bulgoki (famous Korean spicy pork with squid served with rice) and ccan pung sae woo (deep fried shelled tiger king prawn with sea salt and chilli). We chose this one as I personally hate when prawn dishes come in a sauce with shells still on (I always burn my fingers and hate getting sticky and messy when I just want to eat and can't wash my hands easily, it's not so bad at home.) but apparently shelled means shells still on, ah well, at least they were headless and my lovely hubby shelled a few for me! :) We also got a side order of boiled rice and Kimchi (fermented spicy cabbage - it's apparently super healthy) since we'd heard this was a popular national dish.
After ordering we were served a few pickled dishes while we waited for our food. They were all delicious! There was a spicy pickled radish, bean sprouts which tasted of sesame oil, potato in some kind of curry-ish sauce but a very different flavour to anything I've tried before and aubergine which was my favourite.
After ordering we were served a few pickled dishes while we waited for our food. They were all delicious! There was a spicy pickled radish, bean sprouts which tasted of sesame oil, potato in some kind of curry-ish sauce but a very different flavour to anything I've tried before and aubergine which was my favourite.
We soon warmed up with all the spicy food! Our starters were also delicious, the sauce with the dumplings was soy based with chilli and some other flavour right at the start that I recognised but couldn't quite put my finger on but we loved it! The dumplings were nice and crispy with a flavoursome filling.
The skewers were amazing! I didn't eat the pieces of chilli but Nik said they weren't too hot. Again the flavours were different to anything I've tried before but were a little similar to teryaki with a slightly sweet but overall savoury flavour.
The mains were served very quickly. In fact they came to ask if they could take our starter plates away while we were still tasting the soy sauce trying to think what the flavour could be, so they could put down our next plates!
The pork was my favourite, I found the prawns a bit dry and over-cooked although the flavours in both dishes were nice. The Kimchi was a surprise as I expected it to be hot but it was another cold pickled dish which I'm still not sure about but I think will grow on me, especially since it is served with everything in Korea!
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| Pork & Squid |
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| Salt & Chilli Prawns |
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| Kimchi |
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| Mini squid |
When we left, right next door there was a sushi place, Cailin's Sushi, so we picked up some pick 'n' mix sushi for lunch the next day since I didn't get to have any in the restaurant :) (Sadly it wasn't as exciting as I hoped as it was more like the sushi you get in supermarkets when the rice is kind of hard and dry.)
We then wandered down to The Finnieston for a cocktail before heading home. I had a Duoro Flip which included a whole egg but I didn't let that put me off and it was a very nice dessert cocktail, made of port, cherry liqueur, egg, cream and Grenadine. Nik had a Rob Buck Roy which is a long version of a whisky sour.
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| The egg going in! |
I've never had Korean food but it looks and sounds yummy. Especially those dumplings.
ReplyDeleteHave a great time and look forward to reading all about it.